Today's poem is by Oksana Maksymchuk

Unsteady Topography
       

Even inside a war
I'm still at work
making life delicious

Mutinous pastries rise and fall
like a tidal wave
in the makeshift oven
we've assembled out of loose bricks
in the communal yard —
a collective poem

In a room across the street
now and again, I catch a glimpse of
two elderly neighbors
making love
LED light glowing above them
like the moon

Standing in the full
glare of the war, I'm a surface
reflecting its awesome light
shadows emerging due to
the unusual features
of my own darkened soul

its hills and valleys
riverbeds emptied of dreams
sleepless, venomous lakes
teeming with life

I'm a sucker for sweetness
delicate, frothing streams
creaming the landscape

Yet inside me, mountains crumble
craters open on the papery surface

tall load-bearing cakes
break into a scream

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Copyright © 2024 Oksana Maksymchuk All rights reserved
from Pleiades
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission